My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! - Volume 9 - Chapter 15

Chapter 15 — He Has the Ability to Cut Anything with His Sword, but It Is a Bit Lacking Compared to the Other Sages

Alice’s power wasn’t all that complex. Within her world, everything went exactly as she desired. So as long as she stayed in her world, she was invincible.

Of course, there were limits. She couldn’t forcefully drag others into her world. If that were possible, she really would be invincible, so that kept her power balanced. But a power that made her invincible as long as she stayed in hiding was boring. She would never settle for something so dull.

So she decided to make entrances to her realm throughout the world. She created countless entry points, putting them in places like the darkness of an alleyway, the depths of a cave, the inside of a closet, and the door at the end of an impossible hallway. As a result, a fair number of people wandered in unintentionally, and she made sure to politely receive and crush all of her visitors.

There were some plainly obvious entrances to her realm as well, so people often came to save those who had wandered in, or to challenge Alice herself. Those who were bold enough to enter her realm intentionally must have been quite confident in their abilities, but in the end, Alice just toyed with them until they died.

If one wanted to defeat Alice, entering her “Another Kingdom” realm was the wrong move to make. They would need to find a way of luring her outside of it. Just heading into her world was tantamount to suicide. So when that boy entered her realm, she thought he was just another of her idiot visitors.

She first noticed him when he made it through the welcome area and into the forest, writing him off as being a little above average. She started to take a small interest in him when he made it through to the graveyard, though.

The graveyard area was a significant jump in difficulty. The souls of those who had entered Alice’s realm and died challenging her were forced to wait there to fight off intruders. In short, if one wasn’t strong enough to defeat every challenger she had ever faced, they couldn’t even make it through the graveyard. Powerful beings from Heroes to spawn of the Dark Gods wandered inside. As time passed and more challengers made their way to her, her realm became stronger and stronger.

But the boy passed through the graveyard area without even slowing down. At that point, she realized he was more promising than any challenger she had faced before. He then opened the gate to the castle without any keys. Normally, one would need to obtain a key from each of the previous areas to get through, but Alice wasn’t all that bothered by him skipping that step.

The boy entered her throne room and faced her directly. She looked into his abilities. If he was this strong, he must have had the support of a Sage, she thought. His name was Shigeto Mitadera, a Sage candidate summoned by Sion. But the Gift he had received from her was gone. If he’d had a Sage’s Gift, she could have figured out the details of his abilities. He must have obtained a Gift from a different source as a way of countering that advantage.

The boy challenged her to a fight, so she summoned four knights to combat him. That should have been the end. Within Another Kingdom, the knights were invincible. There was no way to defeat them, nor was there any way to defend against their attacks.

And yet, all four were defeated. At that point, she could no longer pretend to be relaxed. Defeating the knights was impossible for an outsider. It defied all expectations and calculations. The power of her realm had been undermined at its foundation.

She finally realized there was something different about Shigeto. An impenetrable darkness had entered her world, one that her powers were useless against.

She immediately decided to flee. Her invincibility within Another Kingdom had been called into question. Naturally, she wouldn’t be able to stubbornly stick to that one ability. That was enough for her to give up her reliance on it. So Alice teleported to the infinite hallway that made up the entrance of her realm. The hallway was lined with countless doors and stretched on forever. As an entrance that temporarily held her visitors, no matter which door one went through, it would lead into her realm. But Alice was different. She could use the doors to get to any of the entrances she had created across the world.

Using everything she could, she piled attacks on Shigeto to distract him while she ran. But where would she go? She hesitated. She should get as far away as she could, close off this world, and create a new one. If she didn’t create any entrances into that new world, she would escape. However, that was the same as admitting defeat. She would live forever in fear that Shigeto would come after her again. Though she had already lost to him once, her pride wouldn’t allow any more than that. Rather than running and hiding, she needed to find a way to fight back.

But she had already tried everything she could. At this point, she was helpless.

“I need help? Me?”

The words alone were so shameful it made her head spin. Though she had ruled as a despot for so long, all she could do now was run as fast as she could and pathetically beg for help. The thought of that was enough to make her boil with anger, but the calm part of her knew she had no choice.

“The Great Sage... Well, he probably won’t help...” A number of Sages had been killed already. However, the Great Sage hadn’t raised a finger to help a single one of them. “I have no way of contacting Raiza...and I want to avoid Van if possible. I definitely won’t be able to get along with Akemi, and who knows what Gorouzaburou will ask in return if I go to him for help. That leaves...Yoshifumi?”

Even as she spoke, her words surprised herself. Every time they had met had resulted in them bad-mouthing each other. If she went to him for help, she would be answered with a torrent of insults. But even if he cursed her out the whole time, he would likely help her in the end.

“Fine then! For now I just need to get out! If I end up near Yoshifumi, it’ll be by chance!”

Alice opened the closest door and stepped through.

◇ ◇ ◇

Shigeto and Navi floated in an empty void, the remains of Another Kingdom that Alice had created. It was an environment with no light or air that would have killed an ordinary person instantly, but thanks to the Omega Blade, Shigeto had no problem surviving.

“It appears she is attempting to destroy the space.” Navi had been given detection and combat abilities, so she was able to grasp the situation to a degree and communicate that information to Shigeto.

“Can we teleport out of here?”

“Yes. While we cannot teleport inside without permission, we can leave without issue.”

“Okay then, let’s go find another Sage. There was one with a really long name, right?”

“You mean Gorouzaburou?”

“Yeah, him. Can he create a closed world like this too?”

“No, he is specialized exclusively for combat. He has no particularly unique abilities.”

“I’m surprised he was able to become a Sage.”

“He has the ability to cut anything with his sword, but it is a bit lacking compared to the other Sages.”

“Okay, teleport me right beside him. This time I should be able to see him straight away, right?”

“Yes. There are no obstacles to the teleportation, so you will appear immediately in front of him.”

“Do it.”

Navi started a countdown. As she finished, their surroundings changed once more.

A man and woman lay entwined on a bed. While they were quite invested in their current activity, perhaps they noticed the intruder, as they immediately stopped what they were doing.

“I assume the guy is Gorouzaburou?” Shigeto said.

The man was a dirty-looking, middle-aged fellow.

“Yes, that is correct.”

Shigeto looked around. It was a small room. Torture devices filled the space and seemed to be in use. Perhaps as a result of the torture they were used for, there were women with no hands or feet and women with objects piercing their bodies crying out in pain on the floor.

The woman engaged with Gorouzaburou at the moment was missing a part of her body as well. It seemed the Sage was a man of particular tastes.

“This is pretty disgusting. I’m starting to feel nauseous.”

“The Omega Blade is nigh-omnipotent, but it does not manage the mental state of its bearer, so please be careful. There are some things that can harm your mental state simply by seeing them, and the sword cannot protect you from that.”

“I see. I guess I should be more careful.”

The room looked as if it should smell awful, but Shigeto didn’t smell anything. The odors must have been blocked out by the Omega Blade.

“Who the hell are you?!” Gorouzaburou finally burst out in delayed anger.

“A bit late to be getting angry, don’t you think?” If Shigeto had wanted to, he could have killed the Sage a hundred times over by now. “I’m Shigeto Mitadera. I’m here to kill Sages.”

“The hell?!” Gorouzaburou jumped up from his bed.

“Okay, teleporting right beside them might force us to see something ugly like this. Next time, let’s teleport a little distance away.”

“Understood.”

Gorouzaburou’s left arm fell to the ground. He must have tried something with the sword in his right hand. The attack had been reflected, and he ended up wounding himself.

“Omega Blade, heal the injuries of everyone in this room.”

At Shigeto’s instruction, the torture devices in the room shattered. They must have been in the way of the healing process. The women inside the room were instantly healed of their injuries, as was Gorouzaburou. Shigeto hadn’t intended to heal the Sage, but since the man was inside the room, it happened anyway.

“What’s your game here, bastard? You think you’re some superhero or somethin’?!”

“Not at all. I just thought it was all painful to look at.” Of course, if that was really the case, he could have simply erased all of the injured people from the room, so Gorouzaburou’s guess may not have been far off. “Okay, what should I do with this guy?”

Gorouzaburou glared at him but otherwise didn’t act. He must have been on guard after his previous attack was reflected.

“Wait, I can mess with the Battlesong system, right?” Shigeto asked Navi.

“Yes, you can change it however you wish.”

“Omega Blade, remove Gorouzaburou’s Gift. Is that good enough?”

“Yes. His Gift has been removed, though you cannot tell just by looking at him.”

“I guess I’ll have to test it out, then.”

Shigeto stepped closer to the Sage, who responded by swinging his sword. The movement was so slow that even Shigeto could follow it. He let the attack hit him dead on, but it struck the invisible barrier around him. The reflected attack wasn’t enough to so much as injure Gorouzaburou. Apparently, he wasn’t all that skilled in swordplay, and without the Gift he was no more than an amateur.

“Huh. There doesn’t seem to be much point in killing him anymore, does there?”

“Will you let him go, then?”

“No. That would be just as boring. I’ll kill him anyway.” A cute girl like Alice was worth sparing to watch her suffer in frustration, but a filthy middle-aged man like this had nothing to offer him. “Omega Blade, kill Gorouzaburou.”

The moment he finished speaking, the Sage collapsed. It was almost unsatisfying.

“All right, on to the next one.”

“No, please wait a moment.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Gorouzaburou is still alive.”

Shigeto looked down at the fallen Sage. Though he had collapsed, his fingers were still twitching.

“What’s going on? Isn’t the sword supposed to be omnipotent?”

“It executed your order to kill him perfectly.”

“Wait, does that mean he came back to life after dying?”

“There seems to be an object from another world buried inside him. That is what revived him. It is unrelated to the Battlesong system, so your previous order failed to neutralize it.”

“Then I’ll just take it out of him. Omega Blade, remove the object inside Gorouzaburou’s body.” As he spoke, the Sage’s back exploded, a small translucent stone bursting out of it. The stone floated up and into Shigeto’s palm.

“So this is what you were talking about? What is it?”

“As the source of the Sages’ power, they call it a Philosopher’s Stone.”

“Do we need it?”

“If you wish to become a Sage, then I suppose.”

“I guess not, then. Here.” Shigeto handed the stone to one of the women in the room.

“Huh? Umm, what is this?”

“I don’t need it, so you can have it. If you want to save Gorouzaburou, put it back in his body, I guess. If you want him to die, then take it somewhere else.”

The woman immediately jumped to her feet and hurried out of the room. The rest of the women, still clearly in shock, streamed out of the room after her. Soon, the only ones left were Shigeto, Navi, and the Sage.

Gorouzaburou was barely breathing. The wound in his back would no doubt prove fatal, so even if they did nothing, he would die soon. Having lost interest in him entirely, Shigeto turned his attention elsewhere.

“So, next would be Akemi, I guess. That’s a woman, right?”

“Yes.”

“Like I said, let’s avoid teleporting right beside her this time. I don’t want to have to deal with a situation like this again.”

“Understood.”

“Okay, teleport me to Akemi.”

Navi began her countdown.